Ah, Joker. What is it about you that makes me unable to pass up a figure of you? Even from lines I don’t collect? My only Hot Toys figure is Joker. He’s about the only DC Direct and now DC Collectibles figure I actually display. Without even thinking too hard about it, I can safely say that I own more Joker figures than any other character, fodder box included. And when I look closer, all the figures are different. I mean, I guess it’s not really difficult to figure out. He’s the embodiment of what we can only think about, doing things that all of us think about at one point or another, but never act upon because we know it’s wrong. So very wrong. Most of us root for the hero, but we secretly root for the villain sometimes. OR maybe not so secretly (right, Secret Six?). Because it’s wrong. So when I saw this figure solicited, I knew I’d end up with it.
First off, the packaging. As anyone who reads any of my short list of reviews knows, I consider this trash. Right off the bat. I rarely pay much attention to it. It’s one more step between me and the figure. But the right side of the box here caught my eye. It’s just a silhouette of the actual figure with just the smile breaking the field of green, but for some reason it tickles my fancy. I also dig the back. Just a head shot, some info, a couple of upcoming figure head shots, and an action pose of the figure you’re buying. Some logos and a background of black and I have to say I like it. Maybe I glaze over on packaging these days because it’s usually a busy set of graphics on wild colors with as much space used as possible. This resealable packaging is very minimal. Wrapped around a Joker figure. Clever.
The figure itself is beautifully sculpted, adequately painted, and… articulated. I know, I know, it’s DCC; we’re used to the bare minimum when it comes to articulation in most cases, historically speaking. But with the previews we’ve seen of upcoming figures with movement comparable to DCUC, it’s a shame that a Joker that fits right in design-wise isn’t as poseable as they will be. And don’t get me wrong. I still really like the figure. But not having ankles and hips hurts the number of poses you can get out of this figure. Any action figure. A subtle shift here, a lean there, boom — instant attitude.
Joker’s articulation:
- Ball-jointed head
- Ball-type shoulders
- Swivel biceps at the sleeve
- Hinge elbows
- Swivel wrists
- Swivel waist
- T-style hips
- Hinge knees
- Swivel ankles at the bottom of the pants legs
The ball jointed head is hindered by a small clearance at the bottom of the head, so you’re not going to get much up and down. Side to side is a little better. The knees and elbows don’t quite go 90 degrees.
But what Joker lacks in articulation, he makes up for it with sculpt and paint. It’s very faithful to his “Death of the Family” appearance, which will turn some people off. I personally like it; you don’t get much more psycho than cutting your own face off, but everyone has a different opinion. Anyway, the sculpt brings a real attitude with it, especially in the head sculpt. And for some reason the oversized gloves really do it for me — I don’t even want to start explaining that. The tools and tool belt are all nicely represented. Even the calipers in one of the back pouches, behind a screwdriver, is easily identified.
The paint is pretty clean. I had to look close to find any slop, but there is a little bit where the collar meets the neck. But it’s a blue transitioning straight into a stark white within a crevice, so I can cut that some slack. His clothes have a slight grunge-wash making it look a little oily and dirty, which is what it’s supposed to look like. The skin is a fairly straight white except for the skin face mask, which is an off-white. It helps distinguish the fact that it’s not his actual face. Along with the straps and clips. Okay, it’s kinda obvious.
As for accessories, Joker is well-armed compared to most toys we get nowadays. He comes with various screwdrivers, calipers, channel locks, and a pair of pliers sculpted in his tool belt, but loose he gets a pipe wrench, a saw, a ball-peen hammer, and a pair of pliers. Not shabby at all. But a word of warning: the tools are made of a stiff plastic that does have a lot of give. The top of the pipe wrench was bent in the package and when I bent it back straight it just stayed straight. No flex back to the bent position, no heating, no nothing. This may seem like a good thing, but it really means that if you bend it too much, it’s going to break. Like I nearly did when I was forcing the hammer into the right hand.
That brings me to one of my main gripes about the figure. The hands and “holsters” don’t have any flex, making it hard to display him with his accessories, which sucks because the right hand is a little small while the left is too big. So you have to force tools into his right and those same tools fall out of his left. When it comes to putting the tool on the belt, it’s not much better. The pliers will hang over the lip of a pouch like the sculpted pair of pliers or tips into the pouch. I’m good with that. The saw and pipe wrench kinda fits into the left hip holster, but the wrench sticks way too far up. The wrench is even worse in the hammer loop on the right hip, reaching nearly to his armpit. He’s pictured this way on the package. But the worst is that the hammer won’t hang in the loop. If the loop would just flex out a bit, it would fit. But no, denied. And yeah, you can find places for all of it.
Until he falls off the shelf and you have tiny tools lost on the floor to be found by future generations. The dilemmas of toy collecting.
Overall, accessory problems aside, I like the figure. It looks good in the display and it’s Joker. That sounds like an excuse, but I don’t mean it to be. Sure, he’s not going to get kung-fu poses, which also means he isn’t going to get goofy, crazy taunt poses, but I have some other Jokers that will do that. This is representative of yet another look for Joker, so he fills that spot for me. Kind of like Iron Man’s hall of armors; I have a hall of Jokers. His looks through the ages. I’m good with that.
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